— Dave Rimmer
For singles released well over thirty years ago it's important to listen to the correct version. If one does a YouTube search for ABC's "Tears Are Not Enough" they're most likely to come across the spruced up rendition that appears on their classic 1982 album The Lexicon of Love. A consistently excellent work of precision musicianship, exquisite arrangements and dramatic love songs with much more depth than they initially appear (more on that in a bit), Lexicon was a commercial and critical smash, one so huge that it ended up becoming the group's albatross. It's also one of those albums that seems loaded with potential hit singles. So chock full of quality is it that "Tears Are Not Enough" doesn't even stand out. I wasn't even aware that it was a single.
But we're still in '81 and getting ahead of things. The Lexicon of Love is six months away, ABC are just one of those "incredibly hip Sheffield bands" (something tells me that Dave Rimmer is referring to them being in the same company as The Human League and Heaven 17 rather than Def Leppard) and "Tears Are Not Enough" is a new single sounding fresh, funky and — at least to these ears so many years in the future with the reference of the album version to go by — free of that familiar studio gloss.
Sounding somewhat muffled and sparse compared to what they had on offer a year later, "Tears Are Not Enough" gives the listener some indication of what early eighties English bands would have sounded like just as they were on the cusp of recording contracts, contemporary production and shiny silver suits. In other words, precisely how they would have sounded to a gaggle of Sheffield scenesters. Chic, they sound like bloody Chic.
"ABC," Rimmer writes to conclude his review, "inspire optimism for the future of Brit-Funk." I'm amazed His Nibs doesn't state the Chic influence but maybe that only seems obvious in hindsight. Either that or their influence was so overwhelming on the entire scene at the time that it scarcely merited comment. But just what was it about Chic that affected a generation of British acts? For one thing, leaders Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were musicians' musicians; schooled in jazz, they were masters of the guitar and bass respectively but they tended to keep their solos tight and not too showy (the notable exception is Rodgers' remarkable tour-de-force of fretwork "Savoire Faire"). For young British hopefuls, perhaps Chic seemed DIY enough to appeal to punk values while their playing managed to be challenging enough to keep followers interested.
Then there's what Ian Macdonald described as Chic's 'elegance and alienation': glitzy, glamourous pop with a brooding dark side. Music made by and for people straight out of that wonderful 1998 film The Last Days of Disco: individuals who would go about ordinary, mediocre lives until they hit the dancefloor of their favourite nightclub. Transplanted over to the UK in the early part of the eighties, this meant signing on to the dole while aspiring to the high life. Far from the escapism of disco, there's a deceptive nastiness at play. The rawer sound of the single version of "Tears Are Not Enough" is more in step with the surprisingly bitter lyrics, delivered by a hard-hearted Martin Fry. These are tough Steel City Sheffielders after all.
So when Dave Rimmer lauds ABC for providing a blueprint for the "future of Brit-Funk" it's down to them expertly aping the Chic sound while imbuing some grim English realism into the mix. Your move, Pig Bag. Your move.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Fun Boy Three: "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)"
The typeset of critical acclaim was barely dry, the record store returns barely returned and The Specials had collapsed. Their extraordinary seventh single "Ghost Town" topped the charts that summer and its pull was such that everyone went straight out and rioted (or something to that effect). The streets now deserted and the band now imploded, vocalists Lynval Golding, Terry Hall and Neville Staple pull themselves together for the closest thing to a follow-up. "The Lunatics" can't measure up to its predecessor's gloomy, chilling atmospherics but it is fascinating in its own right. Are these lunatics they sing of really supposed to be Reagan and Thatcher or are they referring to themselves? Being free of the dictatorial iron fist of visionary Special Jerry Dammers may have made them feel that they were a trio of ne'er-do-well vocalists suddenly in charge of their own collective fate. Either way, it may be a little too on the nose but it's an impressive move nonetheless.
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